Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made a special reference to heart-warming stories coming out of different parts of the world, including the Commonwealth, during her historic address as a rallying call for resilience during the coronavirus pandemic which has killed nearly 70,000 people worldwide.

Queen praises heart-warming stories across Commonwealth

London: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II made a special
reference to heart-warming stories coming out of different parts of the world,
including the Commonwealth, during her historic address as a rallying call for
resilience during the coronavirus pandemic which has killed nearly 70,000
people worldwide.

The 93-year-old monarch, who is also Head of the
54-nation Commonwealth, referred to the very British “attributes of
self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling” as she
made a wider global callout to say that in the years to come, everyone will be
able to take pride in how they responded to the COVID-19 challenge.

“Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we
have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it
through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or
converting businesses to help the relief effort,” she said during her speech,
pre-recorded at Windsor Castle and broadcast on television and radio on Sunday
evening.

“And though
self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none,
are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and
reflect, in prayer or meditation,” she said.

Besides her annual Christmas message, such broadcasts are
rare and the Queen went down memory lane as she recalled the very first
broadcast of the kind she had made as a young princess at the time in 1940
alongside her sister, Princess Margaret, during World War II.

“We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to
children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own
safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from
their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right
thing to do,” she said.

“While we have
faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all
nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of
science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed – and that
success will belong to every one of us,” she said.

A key focus of her message was to express gratitude to
the medical workers and carers on the frontlines of the pandemic in hospital
wards and clinics. She also reiterated the UK government’s message of staying
at home and maintaining strict social distancing to ease some of the pressure
on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) as hospital admissions and death toll
from COVID-19 continue to mount.

She ended on a hopeful note, looking into the future:
“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we
remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. “We should take comfort that while we may have
more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends
again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”